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Shuto Uke and Nukite

After chatting with Iain the other month I decided to start filming some short bunkai videos of some of the things I teach when I run courses at Karate Clubs.

This short video is an application I used in the Heian Flow System. It is certainly not the only use of Shuto Uke and Nukite (I'll be fliming another favourite soon) but one of my favourites. As I note in the video I've increased the distance between Tori and Uke to make it clearer to see what is going on although that is at the cost of some of the application.

I'll get used to talking less and making the videos shorter the more I do these.

Just a thought on this drill. You mention in the video that you're adjusting your shuto strike to become a shuto block in order to counter / stop the second haymaker. Wouldn't it be simpler to just carry on the strike and knock him out, ignoring the second haymaker? Given that you have to move past the strike area in order to block the second punch? Which would negate the second punch anyway.

Just a thought on this drill. You mention in the video that you're adjusting your shuto strike to become a shuto block in order to counter / stop the second haymaker. Wouldn't it be simpler to just carry on the strike and knock him out, ignoring the second haymaker? Given that you have to move past the strike area in order to block the second punch? Which would negate the second punch anyway.

Hi Jon

The answer is yes and no.

I actually do a drill where I crash in and I work from the tight position with the shuto to the head/neck. It's sound, it works under pressure and it closes the other person down - which is what we want.

The context of the drill as shown in the video is threefold: firstly it is part of the Heian Flow System and as a result it is designed to teach students to adapt and move between different striking and grappling techniques in the Heian, secondly as a training system it's aimed at all levels of ability and those with less experience will work at different speeds and ranges to those with more experience, and thirdly it is designed to put the movements of the Kata into a related logical context for the student. A more experienced trainee would probably have no problem working at close range and crashing and striking, although there might be control and impact issues. I see the 'one - two' approach as better for some training approaches - such as making the student move more. It is one of those drills within drills things, tailoring the level of the bunkai to the student. As an example, not shown in the video, the nukite can be palmed aside and there are a massive range of different responses each can go into in an attempt to close down the other.

Thanks John for the clarification. I thought it was something like that (as I have your book BTW).

Wondering whether, if you're planning on posting more of these drills to YouTube, it might be an idea to either put into the video itself or the text descriptor, some of that info? It'll probably save you time responding to the usual YT warriors! :)

Mind you I noticed comments are disabled anyway. So that'll kill that problem in the bud.